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Oakland Pre-Convention Activity Builds
Church Music Set
OAKLAND — Frank Pollard, newly-
installed president of Golden Gate
Baptist Theological Seminary, Mill
Valley, will be the featured guest
speaker for the third annual Church
Music Conference. The conference
precedes the annual state convention
meeting in Oakland Nov. 15-17.
Pollard will interpret the theme for
(Continued on back Page)
Need Someone? WMU Annual Set
The phone number for the
sessions of The Southern
Baptist General Convention of California meeting
in Oakland Nov. 14-17 will
be 415-893-3107.
Those needing to contact
messengers or visitors to
the convention should use
this number.
OAKLAND — Emmanuel McCall,
director of the Black Church Relations
department of the Home Mission
Board, will be featured at the 1983
Woman's Missionary Union annual
meeting Nov. 14-15 in the Regency
Ballroom of the Oakland Hyatt
Regency.
A well-known speaker and writer,
(Continued on back Page)
October 27,1983
The
California Southern Baptist
Redwood Refuses Churches' Messengers
by Herb Hollinger
VALLEJO — Messengers from three
churches were not seated at the annual
meeting of the Redwood Empire
Association Oct. 15 as the simmering
question of ordination of women in this
northern California association came
to a head.
Seven messengers from the Tiburon
Blvd. church, ten from First, Sonoma,
and one from Redwood, Napa, were
refused "seating" which was the
recommendation of the association's
credentials committee at the meeting.
Bill Ryan, associational missionary,
told The CSB the majority at the
meeting voted "about 84-54" not to seat
the messengers of the three churches
because they had ordained women and
it "would cause fellowship problems"
in the association.
Tiburon has two ordained women
deacons, one serving as chairman,
while the other two have ordained
women to the gospel ministry. The
Napa church carries the ordained
woman and her husband as associate
pastors in the staff listing in its
newsletter.
According to Ryan the motion also
contained wording which put the three
churches in a special watchcare status
for a one year probation period at
which time they would be "restored to
the fellowship if they ceased their non-
Biblical practice."
Ryan said in May 1982 the
association discussed the ordination of
women deacons at the Tiburon church
but decided at that semi-annual
meeting it would not be a test for
fellowship. However the association
did approve a motion which said it did
not believe in or promote ordination of
women.
"We better come back to the Biblical
norm of practice," Ryan added. Hesaid
this (ordaining women) had never been
a practice of Baptists. "I'm against
ordination of women."
However, Steven Groll, pastor of the
Sonoma church, said the church has
no conviction it has done anything
wrong. The church has continued to
grow although there are people on both
sides of the question even in the
church.
Groll said he was never contacted by
anyone from the credentials committee
that there would be a problem at the
annual meeting. However, Groll said
he wanted to be supportive, not
reactive, "until we see what happens."
The Sonoma church ordained Merlin
and Kathy Hoppe, husband and wife,
in December of last year. Although the
woman indicated she had no interest in
a pastoral ministry and wanted to seek
a chaplaincy, the church did ordain her
to the gospel ministry. In January the
couple left for Bismarck, ND, where
they serve as church planters, Groll
said.
Fred Grissom, interim pastor at
Tiburon and a professor at Golden
Gate Seminary, said the church voted
Sunday night following the
association meeting to discontinue
giving to the association.
(Continued on back Page)
If Canada Refused—Devastating Blow
by Jim Newton
ATLANTA (BP) — It will be a
devastating blow to the denomination's Bold Mission Thrust if the
Southern Baptist Convention refuses
to seat messengers from Canada, SBC
Home Mission Board President
William G. Tanner said in his annual
report to the board.
Meeting in semi-annual session, the
82-member board adopted a record
$57.3 million budget for 1984, approved
a mid-range plan with goals and
objectives for the years 1984-1990,
elected five new department directors
and appointed and approved 46
missionaries.
In his report to the board, Tanner
said a special committee appointed to
study whether to seat messengers from
Canadian Baptist churches faces three
options.
First is to recommend the Canadian
Baptist messengers be seated, thus
giving full recognition to Southern
Baptist people and churches in
Canada. Tanner said this is the choice
he hopes the committee will make.
The second option is to defer or delay
any action by the SBC concerning
messengers from Canada and the third
is to recommend that messengers from
Canada not be seated.
"I would rather delay any decision
than to see the SBC register a negative
vote," Tanner told the board, which
offers assistance to churches in
Canada through associations in New
England and the Northwest with
which they are already affiliated.
"I cannot conceive of anything
potentially more devastating to Bold
Mission Thrust than this kind of
action," Tanner said.
Tanner told the board he had decided
not to recommend a name change for
the HMB because he did not want to
interject a possible name change into
the convention in Kansas City when
the Canadian study committee would
bring its report.
Staples Explains CBC Fund Deficit
(Ed. Note: The following is an
explanation by California Baptist
College President James R.
Staples of recent news accounts of
the current fund deficit at the
college.)
by James R. Staples
RIVERSIDE — We recently received
our audit and learned that CBC
operated in the red the second year to
the tune of $208,000 plus. This was
added to the accumulative deficit of
last year of $229,000. An extra month's
audit for June which amounted to
$113,000 was added for a total
accumulated indebtedness of $551,000.
During my tenure as your president
we have shown a deficit only four out of
14 years. Two* were in the past two
years. This is extremely serious and is
a personal embarrassment to me, after
having served this long.
I certainly would not minimize the
seriousness of these figures but would
ask that you read carefully some of the
information that would help you
understand the figures better. I do not
need to remind you as a nation we've
come through, or we hope we've come
through, one of the most difficult times
in our economy apart from the
depression years.
Enrollments have fluctuated
because of less college-age students
and because of the economy. We had 14
years of continuity and leadership in
the business office and for the past
three years we have had two major
turnovers in leadership.
We've also gone through a major
transition in computer equipment.
Programing and hardware problems
caused this to extend over a longer
than anticipated period of time. This
made financial decision-making and
control very difficult. You also need to
remember we're now dealing with a
budget of almost $5 million a year with
a fund accounting type of bookkeeping.
Our income and expenses are from
many sources and cannot be projected
accurately. Among these variables are
the number of students, the cost of
utilities, as well as fluctuating interest
rates.
For example, much has been said
and written about the $900,000 note
that was made July 31,1982. In reality,
there was a balloon note on our
dormitories which has been known
about for 15 years and had to be
refinanced. The amount was
approximately $650,000 and the new
note added another $250,000 for
various uses. The interest rate went up
from our old rate of 6.5 percent to the
prime rate plus 1.5 percent floating.
We have also changed auditors to get
a fresh look at our situation. The
amounts we had written off in previous
years for bad and doubtful debts Were
not sufficient (approximately $20,000 a
year). The auditors insisted that we
needed to write off $100,000 last year to
catch up. That was $100,000 of our
(Continued on Page 7)

Oakland Pre-Convention Activity Builds
Church Music Set
OAKLAND — Frank Pollard, newly-
installed president of Golden Gate
Baptist Theological Seminary, Mill
Valley, will be the featured guest
speaker for the third annual Church
Music Conference. The conference
precedes the annual state convention
meeting in Oakland Nov. 15-17.
Pollard will interpret the theme for
(Continued on back Page)
Need Someone? WMU Annual Set
The phone number for the
sessions of The Southern
Baptist General Convention of California meeting
in Oakland Nov. 14-17 will
be 415-893-3107.
Those needing to contact
messengers or visitors to
the convention should use
this number.
OAKLAND — Emmanuel McCall,
director of the Black Church Relations
department of the Home Mission
Board, will be featured at the 1983
Woman's Missionary Union annual
meeting Nov. 14-15 in the Regency
Ballroom of the Oakland Hyatt
Regency.
A well-known speaker and writer,
(Continued on back Page)
October 27,1983
The
California Southern Baptist
Redwood Refuses Churches' Messengers
by Herb Hollinger
VALLEJO — Messengers from three
churches were not seated at the annual
meeting of the Redwood Empire
Association Oct. 15 as the simmering
question of ordination of women in this
northern California association came
to a head.
Seven messengers from the Tiburon
Blvd. church, ten from First, Sonoma,
and one from Redwood, Napa, were
refused "seating" which was the
recommendation of the association's
credentials committee at the meeting.
Bill Ryan, associational missionary,
told The CSB the majority at the
meeting voted "about 84-54" not to seat
the messengers of the three churches
because they had ordained women and
it "would cause fellowship problems"
in the association.
Tiburon has two ordained women
deacons, one serving as chairman,
while the other two have ordained
women to the gospel ministry. The
Napa church carries the ordained
woman and her husband as associate
pastors in the staff listing in its
newsletter.
According to Ryan the motion also
contained wording which put the three
churches in a special watchcare status
for a one year probation period at
which time they would be "restored to
the fellowship if they ceased their non-
Biblical practice."
Ryan said in May 1982 the
association discussed the ordination of
women deacons at the Tiburon church
but decided at that semi-annual
meeting it would not be a test for
fellowship. However the association
did approve a motion which said it did
not believe in or promote ordination of
women.
"We better come back to the Biblical
norm of practice," Ryan added. Hesaid
this (ordaining women) had never been
a practice of Baptists. "I'm against
ordination of women."
However, Steven Groll, pastor of the
Sonoma church, said the church has
no conviction it has done anything
wrong. The church has continued to
grow although there are people on both
sides of the question even in the
church.
Groll said he was never contacted by
anyone from the credentials committee
that there would be a problem at the
annual meeting. However, Groll said
he wanted to be supportive, not
reactive, "until we see what happens."
The Sonoma church ordained Merlin
and Kathy Hoppe, husband and wife,
in December of last year. Although the
woman indicated she had no interest in
a pastoral ministry and wanted to seek
a chaplaincy, the church did ordain her
to the gospel ministry. In January the
couple left for Bismarck, ND, where
they serve as church planters, Groll
said.
Fred Grissom, interim pastor at
Tiburon and a professor at Golden
Gate Seminary, said the church voted
Sunday night following the
association meeting to discontinue
giving to the association.
(Continued on back Page)
If Canada Refused—Devastating Blow
by Jim Newton
ATLANTA (BP) — It will be a
devastating blow to the denomination's Bold Mission Thrust if the
Southern Baptist Convention refuses
to seat messengers from Canada, SBC
Home Mission Board President
William G. Tanner said in his annual
report to the board.
Meeting in semi-annual session, the
82-member board adopted a record
$57.3 million budget for 1984, approved
a mid-range plan with goals and
objectives for the years 1984-1990,
elected five new department directors
and appointed and approved 46
missionaries.
In his report to the board, Tanner
said a special committee appointed to
study whether to seat messengers from
Canadian Baptist churches faces three
options.
First is to recommend the Canadian
Baptist messengers be seated, thus
giving full recognition to Southern
Baptist people and churches in
Canada. Tanner said this is the choice
he hopes the committee will make.
The second option is to defer or delay
any action by the SBC concerning
messengers from Canada and the third
is to recommend that messengers from
Canada not be seated.
"I would rather delay any decision
than to see the SBC register a negative
vote," Tanner told the board, which
offers assistance to churches in
Canada through associations in New
England and the Northwest with
which they are already affiliated.
"I cannot conceive of anything
potentially more devastating to Bold
Mission Thrust than this kind of
action," Tanner said.
Tanner told the board he had decided
not to recommend a name change for
the HMB because he did not want to
interject a possible name change into
the convention in Kansas City when
the Canadian study committee would
bring its report.
Staples Explains CBC Fund Deficit
(Ed. Note: The following is an
explanation by California Baptist
College President James R.
Staples of recent news accounts of
the current fund deficit at the
college.)
by James R. Staples
RIVERSIDE — We recently received
our audit and learned that CBC
operated in the red the second year to
the tune of $208,000 plus. This was
added to the accumulative deficit of
last year of $229,000. An extra month's
audit for June which amounted to
$113,000 was added for a total
accumulated indebtedness of $551,000.
During my tenure as your president
we have shown a deficit only four out of
14 years. Two* were in the past two
years. This is extremely serious and is
a personal embarrassment to me, after
having served this long.
I certainly would not minimize the
seriousness of these figures but would
ask that you read carefully some of the
information that would help you
understand the figures better. I do not
need to remind you as a nation we've
come through, or we hope we've come
through, one of the most difficult times
in our economy apart from the
depression years.
Enrollments have fluctuated
because of less college-age students
and because of the economy. We had 14
years of continuity and leadership in
the business office and for the past
three years we have had two major
turnovers in leadership.
We've also gone through a major
transition in computer equipment.
Programing and hardware problems
caused this to extend over a longer
than anticipated period of time. This
made financial decision-making and
control very difficult. You also need to
remember we're now dealing with a
budget of almost $5 million a year with
a fund accounting type of bookkeeping.
Our income and expenses are from
many sources and cannot be projected
accurately. Among these variables are
the number of students, the cost of
utilities, as well as fluctuating interest
rates.
For example, much has been said
and written about the $900,000 note
that was made July 31,1982. In reality,
there was a balloon note on our
dormitories which has been known
about for 15 years and had to be
refinanced. The amount was
approximately $650,000 and the new
note added another $250,000 for
various uses. The interest rate went up
from our old rate of 6.5 percent to the
prime rate plus 1.5 percent floating.
We have also changed auditors to get
a fresh look at our situation. The
amounts we had written off in previous
years for bad and doubtful debts Were
not sufficient (approximately $20,000 a
year). The auditors insisted that we
needed to write off $100,000 last year to
catch up. That was $100,000 of our
(Continued on Page 7)